Greek Tragedy Greek Tragedy Introduction: The Sixth Century BCE, or - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

• Introduction: The Sixth Century BCE,
• r the End of the Pre‐Classical Age
• The Birth and Nature of Tragedy
• Theatron: Performance Space
• Actors and Acting in Greek Tragedy
• Conclusion: Euripides’ Orestes, or

Why the Greeks Went to the Theatre

Greek Tragedy Greek Tragedy

• oral epic opened the door for lyric

poetry

• in turn, oral epic and lyric poetry

together paved the way for drama drama

• these changes were part of the

ancient Greek spirit of innovation

• this restless urge to experiment

propelled the Greeks into the Classical Age (500‐400 BCE)

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The Sixth Century BCE The Sixth Century BCE

• drama is hardly the only art form to

undergo radical change during the last stages of the Pre‐Classical Age (800‐500 BCE)

• the Greeks of the sixth century (600‐

500 BCE) also revolutionized statuary and architecture

• vase‐painting, in particular, was

turned inside out, literally

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The Sixth Century BCE The Sixth Century BCE

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• there were significant changes
• ccurring in religion, too
• e.g. during the Pre‐Classical Age, the

rites of the god Dionysus Dionysus were imported into many Greek cities from the East (Asia Minor)

• these “ecstatic” celebrations were

more licentious than those to which the ancient Greeks were accustomed

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The Sixth Century BCE The Sixth Century BCE

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The Sixth Century BCE The Sixth Century BCE The God Dionysus

• instead of ecstatic rituals, the Greeks

introduced theatre as a way of worshipping Dionysus

• theatre was better suited to Greek

tastes than unruly celebrations like those of Dionysiac rituals imported into Greece from the East

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• historians are able to follow the

development of tragedy better than that of earlier epic like Homer’s

• the reason for that is that theatre

evolved later than epic (much closer to the Classical Age), when there are more and better records available

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The Sixth Century BCE The Sixth Century BCE

• indeed, historical sources suggest

there was a particular place, founder and date for the first presentation of tragedy

• in Athens by the tyrant Pisistratus

Pisistratus

• in 534 BCE

534 BCE at the Dionysia, a festival Pisistratus inaugurated that year in honor of Dionysus whose rites had recently been imported to Athens

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The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy

• there is some evidence that theatre

had already begun before this

• it was coming to public attention as

an exciting and novel way of presenting traditional stories

• what Pisistratus did, then, was to

graft drama onto the celebration of the god Dionysus

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• it was a very artificial and highly

innovative union of art and religion

• by passing off theatre as a better way
• f worshipping the god, Pisistratus

hoped to tone down the orgiastic celebrations of Dionysus

• thus, the introduction of drama at the

Dionysia was a political compromise

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The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy

• tragedy

tragedy comes from the Greek word tragoidos tragoidos (“goat‐song”)

• the etymology (i.e. historical origin)
• f that word is unclear to us today
• there are no goats in tragedy
• perhaps it is a joke name like “soap
• pera”?

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The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy

• Greek tragedies are not simply or
• nly “sad plays”
• several surviving tragedies have

comic scenes and happy endings

• cf. Euripides’ Orestes (below)
• all in all, Greek tragedy in its day was

very different from the way most people see it today, i.e. old men wearing sheets and bewailing fate

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The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy

• no early Greek tragedies survive
• but we have later tragedies
• and we know that drama derived in

part from earlier epic which is also extant

• by examining these, it is possible to

make reasonable guesses about the nature of early Greek tragedy

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• early Greek tragedy would surely

look slow and cumbersome to us

• but to the ancient Greeks it would

have been startlingly revolutionary

• poet‐performers who dressed up and

spoke as if they were figures from myth must have been shocking to people who were used only to oral and lyric poetry in performance

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• but at heart, tragedy is a mixture of
• lder, traditional art forms blended

together in a new way

• from epic were borrowed the

classical myths which Homer and

• ther oral poets had narrated in epic
• from lyric poetry came the use of

various poetic meters and density of expression

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• from the Greek tradition of singing and

dancing in groups came choruses choruses

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• from Dionysiac ritual was borrowed

impersonation via mask and costume

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• originally, there was only one actor

called a hypocrites hypocrites (“answerer”)

• cf. English hypocrite and hypocrisy

(originally “acting”)

• the hypocrites “answered” the chorus
• he wore a costume and mask and

portrayed characters from myth

• he could do this by changing mask

and costume offstage

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The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy

Greek Tragedy Greek Tragedy

The Birth and Nature of Tragedy The Birth and Nature of Tragedy